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ANCIENT MELODIES
by [Ling Chen] Su Hua
- Used
- Very Good
- first
- Condition
- Very Good
- Seller
-
New Haven, Connecticut, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London: The Hogarth Press, 1953. First edition. Very Good. Octavo. Green cloth, gilt spine. 256 pp. Introduction by Vita Sackville-West. Black & white line drawings by the author illustrate the text. Bookplate of the noted Hogarth Press/Bloomsbury Group collector William Beekman affixed to front pastedown, else very good or better with no marks or toning; author-illustrated, extremely scarce dust jacket with a small loss at top of spine and a rub at the bottom, neatly price-clipped, else very good. Only one other copy available in dust jacket.
First edition. In 1938-39 Virginia Woolf conducted a correspondence with Su Hua Ling Chen, the daughter of a former Mayor of Peking and a friend of her nephew Julian Bell, whom she addressed in her letters as "Sue Ling." Su Hua had written to Woolf from China "that she helplessly depressed by Japan's invasion of China and her refugee life in the western province of Szechuan." Woolf offered to send her books in English to improve her vocabulary, and encouraged her to write a memoir. She finally made it to London in 1947 with her completed manuscript, having sent chapters to Woolf over the years.
First edition. In 1938-39 Virginia Woolf conducted a correspondence with Su Hua Ling Chen, the daughter of a former Mayor of Peking and a friend of her nephew Julian Bell, whom she addressed in her letters as "Sue Ling." Su Hua had written to Woolf from China "that she helplessly depressed by Japan's invasion of China and her refugee life in the western province of Szechuan." Woolf offered to send her books in English to improve her vocabulary, and encouraged her to write a memoir. She finally made it to London in 1947 with her completed manuscript, having sent chapters to Woolf over the years.
The finished book recounts her childhood growing up in pre-revolutionary China. The author paints a vivid picture of her comfortable childhood as the daughter of her father's fourth concubine in a household of courtyards that encompassed six mothers and their children, as well as servants who tended the complicated daily routines of life for the privileged in China just prior to the Boxer Rebellion. A thoroughly charming and surprising personal account.
. WOOLF, Vol. VI, page 221n.Reviews
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Details
- Bookseller
- Second Wind Books LLC
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 532
- Title
- ANCIENT MELODIES
- Author
- [Ling Chen] Su Hua
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First edition
- Publisher
- The Hogarth Press
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1953
- Keywords
- China, Boxer Rebellion, concubines, scarce
Terms of Sale
Second Wind Books LLC
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Second Wind Books LLC
Biblio member since 2022
New Haven, Connecticut
About Second Wind Books LLC
Second Wind Books is committed to offering important British and American first editions in the Modernist vein, with an emphasis on books about books, books by and about women and adjacent admirers. Literature, poetry, small and fine press, letters and manuscripts, original artwork, photographs, are what interests us most. Our founder began bookselling under the tutelage of a truly great bookman in 2006, and is now offering that learned expertise in her own shop. Interested in offers of literature from 1900 to 1950, either for sale or to evaluate.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Bookplate
- Highly sought after by some collectors, a book plate is an inscribed or decorative device that identifies the owner, or former...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Octavo
- Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
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